Schools urged to address gay/lesbian student issue to avoid suicide risks

SCHOOLS need directly to address and offer guidance to gay and lesbian students to avoid them becoming suicide risks, the ASTI conference was told yesterday.

Tony McKernan, (Limerick South), Equal Opportunities Committee, said a past survey had shown that half had been verbally abused and 33% had heard teachers make homophobic comments.

“The major risk to students in situations like this is suicide and, as teachers, we need to be extremely vigilant,” he said.

As for discrimination against gay teachers, he said this took many forms and that clear policies were needed in every school to show that they were open to diversity. A code dealing with this already exists, but in practice, schools can openly discriminate against those teachers where it could be viewed as going against the religious ethos of a school – “effectively an opt-out clause”.

“This section should be immediately removed from the legislation and consigned to the dustbin.”

The vast majority of parents want the issue of homophobic bullying dealt with by school policies, according to unpublished research, he said.

The conference heard that unpublished results from a survey of 2,000 parents found that 82% of parents felt that issues related to sexual orientation should be addressed, while 90% of parents felt that negative attitudes to lesbian, gay and bisexual people should be addressed in schools.

The findings, a result of a 2006 study by Dr Jim Gleeson and Orla McCormack from the Department of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Limerick, were highlighted by teachers who stressed suicide was a risk for many gay and lesbian students in schools.

Meanwhile, Mary Ohle (Dublin North West) said age discrimination was a big issue for some members and there was a need for a gay and lesbian statement in schools.

She also said the under-representation of women when it comes to principal positions was “striking”.

Edel McInerney told of how a 58-year-old teacher, Mary Francis, went for a principal’s position where she was asked “why are you applying for this position at this stage of your life?”.

“A can of worms was opened,” she said, before Ms Francis was awarded €10,000 after challenging the process.

Carmel Heneghan, Tuam branch, said teaching has an ageing profile, yet new entrants to the profession faced “huge challenges” regarding issues such as casualisation of the profession and worries over pension entitlements. She said age diversity needed to be debated and the ASTI’s Committee would be looking at this in the coming year.

Kevin Brogan, (Drogheda), said members with disabilities had faced situations where Medmark, which administers the Occupational Health Service for Teachers, are saying people are fit to return to work when they were not fit to do so.

One speaker pointed out males seemed to be over-represented within the hierarchy of the ASTI, when 68% of members were women.